


Feeling Blue

by Veresiine



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-24 02:35:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18562195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veresiine/pseuds/Veresiine
Summary: All OCs, all the time.Two blood elves and a night elf discuss clothing color and what it means to them, emotionally and politically.Not my best piece but it's been sitting around my documents folder for a while so I might as well put it up.





	Feeling Blue

"Hey, Verk?" Verk looked up from her book to see that Quendri had set her quill down and was glancing over at her.

  
"What is it? Did you get stuck on the fire runes again?" _Did I mix some Thalassian into that part of the worksheet again?_ Verk wondered.

  
"No, not that. I was just thinking, you've been wearing an awful lot of black these days."

  
"She's just going through a goth phase," Tel spoke up from the desk in the corner.

  
"It's _not_ a goth phase! I'm 53 years old, damn it!" Besides, it wasn't as if she was _intentionally_ choosing to wear black; she was just wearing the clothes that she typically wore under her armor and they happened to be black. And, beyond that, goth didn't _just_ mean black, or vice versa.

  
"You're never too old for a goth phase," Tel pointed out.

  
"Yeah, yeah, we both know you had one in Outland. Then your new missi--"

  
"SHHH!" Tel actually looked flustered. Good. Though Verk probably _had_ overstepped by mentioning Tel's recent... adventures... around Quendri. Verk still thought she was crazy for posing as a Dark Ranger for intel, but there was no stopping Tel once she made up her mind. At least she wasn't starting another cult this time... probably.

  
"Huh?"

  
"Don't worry about it, Quendri," Verk said.

  
"Though I have to admit, I _am_ curious. Finally fed up with red and gold?" Tel asked.

  
"I'm not really... Horde... anymore." Or a Blood Knight either, come to think of it. "And even if I were, it's... really best for me to _not_ have stuff with the Horde or Blood Knight insignias lying around, since, you know, we're in Alliance territory." Eresiine had been doing a very good job of keeping nosy neighbors away, but there was only so much one very tired priest could do to conceal the presence of three blood elves in her home.

  
"Oh, is that what you were burning the other day?" Tel asked.

  
"I... yeah." Her Horde tabard, at least. She still had the Blood Knight one in her dresser, under her old Shattered Sun tabard. Not that she expected Tel to find it there. Even almost a decade later, anything to do with the Shattered Sun still repelled Tel like holy water did undead.

  
"You're going to need a professional to deal with your shield, though."

  
"It's a shield. It'll get worn out sooner rather than later, especially if you keep dragging me along on adventures."

  
"Please, you _volunteer_ to come."

  
"Only so I can point and laugh when you inevitably screw up."

  
"Keep watching and waiting, then." Tel stood up from her desk and carried the diagram she'd been working on over to the main table.

  
"Say, Verk, what _did_ you like to wear before you joined the Horde?" Quendri asked.

  
"Uhm..." Hm. Now that she thought of it, what _was_ her identity -- and color scheme -- before she'd made up her mind to join the Blood Knights, and before the sin'dorei had joined the Horde?

  
"I know you wore a _lot_ of pink, but I don't know how much of that was your choice and how much of that your parents forced on you," Tel said.

  
"She still wears pink," Quendri said, pointing at the gem in the center of Verk's right pauldron.

  
"Jewels don't count!" Besides, Onoras had picked those out for her. "I just... I don't know. Tel, you remember more than me." Probably. Verk had tried very hard to repress those memories. Tel had no such problem. "Did I wear anything other than pink?"

  
"Uh, leather when you were sneaking off to go carousing in human territory, some yellow -- 'to bring out the gold in my eyes~!'" Quendri gagged at Tel's awful impression of teenage Verk. Verk herself pointedly put her hand on the hilt of her sword, though of course she wouldn't draw it. "Never mind that it doesn't _actually_ work that way. Especially since your eyes _weren't_ gold, but hazel. Other than that, pink, pink, and more pink."

  
"Ugh," Verk groaned. Why was this so difficult? And why was it even a problem? Surely figuring out her allegiances and what that meant for her as a paladin should have taken precedence over _fashion_! But no, they were on this topic now, and she didn't see it changing any time soon.

  
"Yes. I agree. Ugh. You were insufferable." Tel waved her hand, and a fiery three-dimensional version of the diagram sprang from the page she had set down.

  
"Implying I'm not anymore? That's so sweet of you, Tel," Verk drawled.

  
"You're insufferable in an entirely different way now. The more things change, the more they stay the same. At least you've finally figured out humans aren't to be trusted."

  
"What about your boy toy, then?" Verk asked.

  
"He's also your drinking buddy. Moreover, he's _Orlaney_. He doesn't count."

  
"Oh, yeah?"

  
"He's one individual human. Some individuals can be trusted. The species as a whole can't."

  
"Are you two still upset about Dalaran?"Quendri asked. Verk was torn between the desire to back away and the desire to lean in front of Quendri to shield her in case Tel's inevitable burst of anger had magical consequences.

  
"'Upset' describes it about as well as 'light breeze' describes a hurricane," Tel said, keeping her voice falsely cheerful. "And looping back to the topic of fashion, this is why you'll _never_ see me wear blue or silver."

  
"What about purple, though?" Quendri asked. Welp. Apparently Quendri trusted Tel and didn't see her as a potential threat. Good for her, not having had to deal with an outsider magistrix as a political threat for decades.

  
"To me, purple represents the good *and* the violent, hypocritical, self-righteous bad of the Kirin Tor, whereas blue and silver only represent the bad. I still don't like it, but different shades of purple from theirs are fine," Tel explained.

  
"You know, I still find it funny that, for all your talk about still being loyal to Kael'thas after all these years, _you_ don't even wear red and gold," Verk pointed out, grateful the topic had shifted to Tel's choices instead of hers.

  
"Short answer: I like green. Long answer: red and gold these days are more indicative of Silvermoon as a whole rather than Prince Kael'thas himself, and I've no real respect or admiration for any of those currently occupying Sunfury Spire. Moreover, green reminds me more of nature, of the forest, of --" Tel's voice cracked before she could get to 'home'. She coughed, and pointedly avoided Quendri's gaze, probably aware that she'd just thrown salt in a relatively fresh wound. "Um. Yeah. I like green."

  
"I think... I should like green then, too. And if you guys don't like purple..." Quendri looked down at her (very purple) dress.

  
"I don't like _wearing_ purple," Verk explained. "Seeing it on other people is fine."

  
"Wear what you want, Quendri. If you like purple, wear it. Darker shades of purple in particular look good on you," Tel said.

  
"I guess. It's just, well... sometimes I feel like Eresiine is the one dressing me." Verk and Tel shared a glance.

  
"I mean, she does that to everyone sometimes," Verk said, thinking of the long blue skirt she kept in the farthest reaches of her closet ('you're not going out into the Lower City dressed like _that_! Cover up a bit more; here, I'll trim and re-hem this so it will fit you'). She didn't like it and hadn't worn it more than once, but she kept it for the sentimental value.

  
"With varying degrees of success," Tel added.

  
"Even you two?"

  
"Um. She's a mother hen, she's ten to a hundred times our ages, and she controls the flow of fabric into and out of the household," Verk explained. "It's kind of a given."

  
"Then wouldn't she complain more about you?" Quendri asked. Verk wondered if she'd ever get used to someone being so candid around Tel without fearing political retribution.

  
"What? The green or the cleavage?" Tel asked. "Because she and I have come to an understanding. She doesn't try to get me to cover up, and I don't try to get her to show more skin. Besides, it's just fel green she doesn't like. Dark green is fine. She grew up in the woods, too, didn't she, Verk?"

  
"I think it was a marshy, swampy place, but yeah. Lots of plants. Just, you know, alien world, I don't know what color they were. She doesn't like talking about it much." Verk shrugged. "But yeah, Quendri, Tel's right, wear what you want. And if you want to stand up to Eres and ask either of us to go clothes shopping with or for you for a change, just ask."

  
"You're not going to go outside wearing one of the Horde's colors, though," Tel said sternly.

  
"Black goes with everything, though!" Verk complained. "And if I just change the appearance of my eye color with an illusion, it's not like I'd be that easily identified as a blood elf. I'm a paladin, not a warlock."

  
"If you're going to go outside with blue eyes, then you might as well find something to match. Go ask Eres," Tel said.

  
"Who's dressing whom, now?" Quendri asked. Hrgk. Well, it looked like this was Verk's life, now.

**Author's Note:**

> Orlaney is a friend's character, not mine.


End file.
